Marketing 101 - Rule 3
You have your prospect's attention, and you're going to pull back a little so you don't say anything offensive, but you could still lose the sale unless you...
Enter into the conversation the person is already having in her or his own head.
When focused completely on conversation, a task or dinner, we've all been jarred by a jangling telephone bringing a strange voice asking, "How are you?"
(My questions is who are you?)
Someone is sure he can save us money on our car insurance, refinance our house at a lower rate or intrigue us with a free vacation including an amazing 90-minute tour of their resort.
Do you shift gears that quickly? Are you warm and receptive to such a call? I rarely am. I often say, "I'll keep what you're saying in mind, but I cannot shift focus from what I'm doing to seriously consider making a decision right now." Many people I know hang up without giving the intruder a moment for a comeback.
And that is just the point. Such a call is an intrusion. You, marketing your wares, do not want to intrude on people. The way to avoid assaulting your prospects is to enter into the conversations they already have going on in their heads, their...
- worries
- concerns
- jobs
- children
- leisure
- retirement
- boredom
- bills
- taxes
- ailments
Notice most of the conditions in the list are negative - pains people want to avoid rather than pleasures people are drawn to. Humans commiserate well with others.
"Do you think this rain is ever going to stop?"
"Can you believe they want $5 for a loaf of bread?"
"My flight was two hours late. How about yours?"
Sharing common internal conversations with others is the stuff of which small talk is made. Chit chat. You're standing in line at the grocery store with your small basket of produce and food bars. The person in from of you is unloading a cart mounded with pasta, ground beef, tomato sauce, garlic, artisan baguettes and wine. You say, "Wow! That looks good! Can I come home with you?" You share a chuckle and enjoy the rapport.
Humans are naturally social. The other person desires connection as much as you do. Without going into the reasons for this, use it in your marketing. The other person wants to be acknowledged as a person both unique and belonging, meaning "something in common" but not exactly "alike."
For example, you may be selling juicers. The person you're talking to may have never thought of buying a juicer. But as you chit chat over the contents of your shopping baskets, you learn she has health concerns. You don't start talking about juicers; you into into her conversation about her ailments (not yours!).
Online marketing is only slightly different. You cannot visually see the people you're addressing to gain clues about their internal conversations. But wouldn't you agree most people share only a few common concerns, especially when further broken down by age groups?
Spam
Do you know what email spam is? See how well you do on the quiz below:
___ a. email I don't appreciate
___ b. email I didn't ask for
___ c. email I can make into a sandwich
___ d. all of the above
___ e. none of the above
If you answered "a", then your understanding of spam matches that of the pundits. While it may be true that you did not ask for any of the email you hate getting, it is also generally true we all get emails we appreciate but for which we did not explicitly ask.
In other words, email we receive and websites we enjoy - because they lie within our solar system of interests - are not among those that make us angry. Those aren't the ones we want to get rid of.
So unsolicited emails or website popups or offers are not necessarily spam. In fact, if you've successfully entered into the conversation your prospect is already having in her head, she'll probably welcome the dialogue.